1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of utilizing a storage apparatus in an information processing system. In particular, it relates to a method of utilizing a storage apparatus and its storage areas in the case where the operation and the management of the storage apparatus are outsourced. More specifically, it relates to a method of selecting the storage areas and a method of migrating data held within the storage areas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the storage apparatus is used with a computer system, thereby holding data and programs. In accordance with a request from the computer system, the storage apparatus is capable of writing-in, modifying, or reading-out the data and the programs.
The prevalence of computers and the Internet is now increasing electronic information explosively. In accompaniment therewith, the storage apparatus itself also continues to be increased in capacity. As a result, a company that owns a computer system must add-on and manage the storage apparatus in agreement with the information that continues to be increased. The operating/managing cost of the storage apparatus in a company is basically classified into the introduction cost of the storage apparatus and the management cost thereof. Concerning the capacity of the storage apparatus, however, as the capacity is made larger, the system becomes more complicated and thus the cost needed for the operation/management is increased further. On account of this condition, there exist some of the companies that make a plan to outsource the operation/management of the storage apparatus to the experts in order to reduce the operating/managing cost.
Meanwhile, in recent years, SSPs (: Storage Service Providers) that undertake the operation/management of the storage apparatus at a company's request have been getting started up. A company, i.e., a SSP's customer, requests the SSP to rent out a portion of storage area (i.e., a volume) of the storage apparatus, then outsourcing the operation/management of the volume to the SSP. This outsourcing makes it possible to reduce the operating/managing cost needed for the storage apparatus (“Service Business Supporting SSP”, the Japanese periodical “Nikkei System Provider” pp50–57, Mar. 16, 2001).
As the number of the SSPs increases, a company finds it impossible to readily judge which SSP gives the company good receive the service. Also, once the company made a contract with a certain SSP and started the operation, a large amount of data has been accumulated therein. Accordingly, even if a more charming (e.g., a lower-price, a higher-performance, a higher-reliability, or the like) SSP appears, the company finds it impossible to easily switch over to the more charming SSP.